The Future of Field Sales - how to adapt your strategy for a virtual sales force, Tim Hughes

Spotted this post on Linkedin by Gartner, where they provided this report.

The overall message from Gartner is....

Gartner go on to say

You must empower your team with social selling!

"To meet changing buyer expectations, CSOs must invest in creating and supporting a permanent virtual sales force with limited in-person engagements to sell complex solutions primarily through digital engagements."

You cannot get a better endorsement for social selling than that!

But what about the mix of SDRs, BDRs and AEs?

Recommendations

To build the direct sales force of the future, CSOs must revise their current field sales deployment strategy and: To meet changing buyer expectations, CSOs must invest in creating and supporting a permanent virtual sales force with limited in-person engagements to sell complex solutions primarily through digital engagement.
Reallocate field sales resources to inside sales and expand the team’s mandate to sell higher-value products and service.
Redefine field sales roles as low-travel, primarily operating virtually with specific parameters for in-person engagement.
Attract higher-quality direct sales talent by recruiting sellers who succeed in remote working environments instead of centers of excellence or collocated offices.

The following blogs might be useful here

The competitive advantage you gain by having sales people that can walk digital corridors

How can I make my sales team effective while they are sitting at home?

How do we break into accounts and win business where are competitors are active?

My customers don't like talking to vendors, what shall I do?

Gartner then hits us with this nugget

By 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels.

I actually think we are already there, or as leaders we need to assume this is already the case.

Sales teams have to be about to social sell. Period.

Gartner go on and nail the final nail in the coffin of legacy sales with the following statement.

Virtual selling is poised to upend long-standing traditions in sales force deployments. Driven by the global pandemic, nearly all B2B sellers rapidly transitioned to operating virtually as suppliers and buyers moved to remote work policies. As a result, sellers who spent their entire career operating face-to-face were forced to sell virtually as sales organizations quickly built the processes and support necessary to sell complex solutions remotely.

There it is in black and white, while we have spent our lives having face-to-face meetings we cannot assume this will carry on. Yes the pendulum will swing back, but as responsible business leaders we have to give our sales teams the digital skills to walk digital corridors.

Impacts and Recommendations

Gartner go on to say ..

Buyer Preference for Online Engagement Will Push CSOs to Invest in a Permanent Virtual Sales Force

Gartner backup my view by saying

Buyers’ preference for digital engagements doesn’t spell the end for sales reps or even field sales deployments, but it is a call to action. In some cases, in-person interactions are still the lowest-effort way to meet buyers’ needs in highly complex B2B sales environments. However, the proportion of these cases is decreasing compared to 10 or even five years ago, and that trend will continue. CSOs must recognize that responding to these trends and preparing for the new work environment requires investing in virtual sales.

Sales leaders must respond by investing in social selling.

Gartner recommendations

1. Develop a Primarily Virtual, Low-Travel Sales Capability

2. Reallocate Field Sales Resources to Inside Sales and Expand the Team’s Mandate

It is now a competitive imperative that salespeople transition away from legacy sales methods such as cold calling and email and move to have social and digital skills.

This does mean that a business is no longer tied to recruiting salespeople within driving distance of an office, now the business can employe the best salespeople regardless of location.

This is not about ....

Spamming on social media, that isn't social selling, it's spamming on social media.
Digital hope ..... hoping that somehow sales people will find an answer, they won't.
The analogue sales enablement or marketing team coming up with an answer.
Clicks and views and visibility, this is about revenue, growth and EBITDA.

This is all about ....

The leadership taking control of social media and making sure it's a boardroom issue.
Empowering the sales team not just to post on social media but to have conversations.
Treating social as a strategy, a competitive advantage that comes from a methodology.

What is social selling?

Here at DLA Ignite, we define social selling as

"Using your presence and behavior on Social Media to build influence,
make connections, grow relationships and trust, which leads to
conversation and commercial interaction."

It's not witchcraft, it's enabling your salespeople to work from home, (or the office) and create conversations with prospects and customers. Conversations on social media and conversations that convert.

The problem with the name "social selling" is that people think that this is selling on social. All these pitches that you get on social are not social selling, they are spam.

The other thing you need to know about social selling is that this isn't about "putting out some videos" or "putting flowers on your profile" or "going viral" this is about revenue, EBITDA, you winning business from the competition and having a competitive advantage.

With anything you do on social there are two questions you need to ask

1. How many leads / meetings / conversations will I get from this post / blog / activity?

2. How much revenue / EBITDA am I getting as a business?

So who's social selling?

In case you missed it, the Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch have banned cold calling and have moved all their people to social selling. This isn't some trendy tech company that might have decided to do this on a whim, this is a very conservative financial services company that has made a decision based on data.

But surely cold calling has a better ROI than social selling? Not according to Merrill Lynch.

"They will also be encouraged to contact prospects over LinkedIn, which has a higher hit rate than cold calling"

The CRO (chief revenue officer), Richard Eltham of Namos Solutions, of one of clients posted a comment on LinkedIn about social selling. See here.

“Social selling is not an option now it is the way of the world and you either learn and execute it or fear getting left behind”

Kevin Murray who is the Head of Sales at MacArtney Underwater Technology recently posted about his success with social selling here and wrote an article about the transformation that has happened in sales here.

Andrew Ferrier who is the CEO of Display Technology Ltd and in this article it talks about why Display Technology have adopted social selling. His team have also created a social media strategy with help from our partner, Crux.

Their social media mission statement is

“We want to position ourselves as a forward-thinking, knowledgeable team of individuals who are all experts in our own right, therefore, collectively awesome!”

Andrew also says in that post

"Adopting this (social selling) strategy has taken all of us well outside of our comfort zones but the rewards we have seen in a short period of time have created an excitement within the business development team (new term for sales team).

Because of the nature of social media, quite often you can get instant results. Even if that is just a comment left on your post, or a like, or someone taking the time to want to connect with you.

The excitement around the sales team is infectious, it’s no longer a chore to reach out to the market place because the results can be instant and are there, right in front of you."

What sort of results can you expect?

If you check out this video of Chris Mason CEO at Oracle reseller Namos, fast forward to 19 minutes 55 seconds. Chris talks about a $2.6 million win from being on social, after completing the DLA Ignite social selling and influence course.

Here at DLA Ignite, we work with our partners such as Crux, Little Bird Marketing, Funnel Amplified, Accelery, EDPE Consultants, etc. We are the only social selling and influence company in the world to offer a certificate provided by an independent qualification body (OfQual) and sponsored by the Institute of Sales Professionals (ISP).

Other articles you might be interested in ....

Would you buy social selling training course from somebody that doesn't use social selling?

How to create budget and build a business case for your social selling project